Imagination is literal like a bird is a truck

by Jon Rappoport

December 17, 2014

OutsideTheRealityMachine

Once upon a time, each thing was itself and nothing else. This suited the clan.

Then on a slow Tuesday afternoon, a member made a comparison in language—one word to another.

Half the clan wanted to throw him over a cliff, and the other half wanted to get down on their knees and pray to him.

They flipped a coin and decided to reserve judgment because, fortunately for the future, the coin landed on its edge.

Thus metaphor was allowed to expand.

Something heretofore unknown was stimulated: imagination.

Immediately, an underground movement was formed to stop this. It was illegal by a Higher Standard, and it would certainly corrupt the young.

And green and golden, I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves
Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,
And the sabbath rang slowly
In the pebbles of the holy streams.
(Fern Hill, Dylan Thomas)

There on that scaffolding resides
Michael Angelo.
With no more sound than the mice make
His hand moves to and fro.
Like a long-legged fly upon the stream
His mind moves upon silence.
(WB Yeats, “Long-Legged Fly”)

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
(William Gibson, “Neuromancer”)

Deploying imagination is not like sending columns of troops out to battle.

And without irony or metaphor—two of the million children of imagination—there is no laughter.

Just stolid old USSR eyes asking for records.

Imagination doesn’t work in a straight line.

The literalists are trying to engineer a Flatland reality for the masses. They may not know it, but that’s the limit of what they can conceive.

These are the letters of my ancient fathers,
And these are the rose letters
Jumping inside the rolling apparatus
That moves the sun,
Shining through old windows
On statues of drowned men.

Society: all the possibilities of metaphor dampened to produce a non-metaphoric cartoon.

Jon Rappoport

The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29^th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at NoMoreFakeNews.com or OutsideTheRealityMachine.